Here we go! Another chapter in the books! This will be a very short case I just finished the final chapter and then there will be one more post case chapter and then an awesome case that I've been super excited to write for a very long time now! Anyway thank you all for your reviews and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 2-Used
March Day 1, 7:31 P.M.
"So, Naru and Lin are looking to see if maybe the blood came through the pipe?" Yasuhara asked, sitting next to Mai and in front of the monitors.
"Fake blood, and yeah," Mai said with a shrug. After her meeting with Kawaguchi, she was sent back with Masako on walk-arounds and someone was sent to clean up the mess in the bathroom. She took a sip of her tea. "We didn't have our equipment up so we can't see who might have done that, but Naru did look at the security footage. Again he couldn't see who might have done it, but the intern swears that the blood didn't appear until after she turned on the faucet."
"Fake blood."
"That's right." She shook her head and shivered. "I can't believe Naru tasted it!"
"And you did too!" Yasuhara quipped with a smirk. "Licked it right off of his fingers all seductively, from what I hear."
She playfully smacked his arm. "You're making crap up," she said with a roll of her eyes. She turned her attention back to the monitors and saw John and Masako walking around trying to bless the energy in the building. If the activity continued after that, it was probably caused by a person. Meaning Naru would be right, the annoying thought rang in her head.
"So, what do you think our next step is?" the college student asked soberly. "I'm surprised Naru took this case if it really is just pranks gone wrong."
"I'm surprised too," Mai said with a shrug.
"Really? Word on the street is that you're the one who convinced him to take the case." But Mai shook her head.
"I told him to reconsider, yeah," she admitted. "But he was adamant that this case was a hoax. I told him that regardless he would get paid. He then asked me if I was caught up in school, and I am, hell, I'm even ahead. I asked him if he would reconsider and he said no. That was the last I heard out of him until getting the call last night that he had taken a case and you were to pick me up."
"Interesting."
"What? That your source isn't reliable?"
"No, the opposite."
She was about to question it, when Naru and Lin came back to Base with a small tube and bucket filled with fake blood.
"The day has finally come where we feast upon the blood of your enemies?" Yasuhara asked with maybe a little too much enthusiasm.
"Yasuhara-never mind." Mai shook her head and resisted the urge to facepalm. "That was in the sink?"
"That restroom is in dire need of renovations," Naru explained as Lin placed the evidence on their small table. "It's not set up like most, instead of commercial restroom sinks you would find just about everywhere, the one here is more like one found in a private residence. There was a cabinet underneath it."
"The cabinet was locked, but once we opened it, we found the bucket and the tube connected to the faucet," Lin added. "Once you turned on the faucet it would draw up the fake blood through the tube and mix it with water so it would flow out, but still remain its thickness. A lot of work to be put into for a prank."
"But not something a ghost would have done," Mai said, crossing her arms and leaning back. She turned to the college student next to her. "You're interning right now, is it common for companies to pull pranks on the new interns? Shouta never mentioned it to me when we were together."
She didn't notice the tension felt by the men in the room at the sound of her ex's name. Probably best that way. Yasuhara just shrugged. "I mean, sometimes there's an initiation, but it's usually something small and benign. I had my lunch stolen out of the fridge on my first day, but I got it back after my lunch break was over. So I had to eat it while completing whatever tasks were given to me."
"That's harsh," Mai said with furrowed brows. Again the boy shrugged.
"It wasn't so bad, at least I didn't have blood coming out of the faucet when I went to wash my hands."
"We're not dealing with harmless pranks," Naru said suddenly, crossing his arms.
"So we're dealing with someone who wants everyone to think there's a ghost here?" Mai asked, raising a brow.
"Precisely."
"And we just need to find out who would do that," Yasuhara said with a nod.
"But what if whoever is doing this stops until we leave?" Mai asked. "If this is a hoax, why risk getting caught by continuing?"
"There's no ifs, Mai," Nau said shaking his head. "It is a hoax."
"Masako still sensed something." She held firm as she spoke. "Maybe it's not causing the haunting, maybe influencing it?"
"I see, what you're saying," the college student said with a snap of his fingers. "Like what happened with the theater, the spirit was influencing Ichika and using her to create a poltergeist."
"And if it's not?" Lin asked. "We're looking at what is most likely a hoax, while there might be a spirit here, it didn't cause the fake blood in the sink earlier."
"And if, like what Mai said, whoever is causing the hoax stops because we're here, when we leave it won't look good on our end."
"Again," Yasuhara said with a knowing nod, "like the theater case. Masako cleansed a spirit, but not the one causing the haunting."
"And they were completely against Masako coming back and taking a second look," Mai finished, remembering how useless the medium had felt.
"And why I didn't want to take this case." Naru was paying close attention to the monitors.
"I thought you just ignore the people who don't believe in you," Mai muttered, earning a look from her boss.
"What?"
"I just don't see why you would be concerned about what others thought of you. You told Kasai that if someone doubted her abilities after she proved herself, then they never believed you in the first place."
Naru gave her a peculiar look as what she said processed. He turned his attention back to the monitors. "Yasuhara-san?"
"Uh, yes?" he answered with a raised brow.
"Would you take Mai home? I don't require either of you for tonight. Report back here tomorrow at the same time as today," he said before walking out of the room.
Yasuhara and Mai looked at each other in confusion, barely noticing Lin take his place at his laptop at the table.
March Day 1, 8:12 P.M.
Mai was still so confused that Naru let her go home early and felt slightly guilty that she might have pushed him too far. Why do you even care, Mai? He was always such a jerk to you.
Mai mentally slapped herself. That's exactly what Hozumi was talking about. You broke up with Shouta a month ago and his words are still controlling you. Naru has been a jerk in the past, no question. But he has been kind too.
She remembered the time her boss comforted her while they were stuck in a manhole. He didn't have to perform magic or go out of his way to make her less afraid of their situation. The cemetery, when he thought that her parents' graves had been vandalized, he tried to hide it from her to protect her. Yasuhara's school, he used his body to shield her from the ceiling. She remembered blushing so much after that incident. It was hard to believe that she had such a huge and embarrassing crush on the man.
She smiled at the memory. So much had changed in the last year. And while Shouta didn't turn out to be who she thought he was, he did help her get over her crush on Naru. She wasn't a naïve, teen, ghost hunting wannabe anymore. She has been right and she has been wrong. She's learning to accept that she isn't perfect. Now if only she could get a decent night's sleep-
"Mai!" And she spaced out again.
Blinking hard, she shook her head and turned to her chauffer. "I'm sorry, Yasuhara-san. I was daydreaming again," she said with an apologetic smile.
"That's fine, and we're here," he said, giving her a wary look. Mai turned and saw the outside of her apartment building.
"Thanks," she said, grabbing her bag and stepping out of the car. "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Wait, Mai!" Yasuhara called out as Mai closed the door and he rolled down the window. "You dropped something." He bent down to pick up the paper that had fallen out of her bag.
"Oh! That's-" Mai tried to grab the paper, but Yasuhara had already seen its contents.
His eyes widened as he read the top line. "This is-" Mai took the paper through the window and nodded slowly.
"Yes. It is." She folded the paper and shoved it in her bag. "And no one is to know about this. Especially not Naru."
Yasuhara gave her a concerned look. "What is that, Mai?" he asked.
Mai bit her lip and noticed the traffic that her friend was blocking. She shook her head and leaned back into the window. "Go park and meet me at my apartment. The door will be open." Before he could respond, she turned and left.
"Good work," Naru said, after John and Masako had updated him on their walkthrough. "We'll pick up here tomorrow."
"Do you need a ride?" John offered the medium.
"If you don't mind, that would be great," she accepted as they gathered their things and left Base. "Good night, Naru, good night, Lin."
"Good night."
Once their footsteps could no longer be heard, Lin, still typing of course, said, "So, will you ever tell her what happened when Shouta went looking for her?"
Organizing his notes by the monitors, Naru shook his head. "No need, what's done is done."
"She doesn't even know he came looking for her, does she?" Naru never answered. "And you plan to keep it that way." Again, he didn't answer. Lin shook his head. "Why did you take this case? You believe we're dealing with a hoax, so do you plan to reveal the one behind it and leave? Or was this all to humor her?"
Naru once again refused to answer and stood up. He walked out without another word.
"Since when am I more talkative than him?"
Mai placed a cup of tea in front of Yasuhara and sat across from him at her kitchen table. She took a sip from her own cup and was reluctant to even talk about what he had seen fall from her bag. She felt guilty that they were even going to have this conversation. "You wanna tell me what that was?" he asked, relieving Mai of making the first move.
She took another sip, delaying the conversation, but she knew she had to talk. This wasn't something that would go away. And she knew it. "It was just what you saw. It was an application for a job," she explained. "Shouta wanted me to work at the company he was interning at and gave me that application. I filled it out to humor him and I just found it over the weekend when I went through my closet. I meant to shred it at school, but I forgot. Simple as that."
It was a good cover, Mai mentally patted herself on the back for coming up with it on the spot. But she knew it wouldn't work, not on this boy. He was far too smart to fall for something like that. He smirked. "Nice try, Mai," he said, taking a sip. "But if that were the true story, you wouldn't have invited me in for tea. Besides," his eyes traveled to the girl's school bag in the corner. "I saw the date marked on it. You filled that out just over a week ago. Wanna tell me what's really going on?"
Mai smiled at her cup. She should have known that Yasuhara would have checked the date. There was no distracting him this time. This wasn't like when he was trying to figure out who she was dating and she could tease him about something else and change the subject.
"Did something happen between you and Naru?" he asked, because she never responded. "Or is this because of what happened on our last case? Are you worried he would do that to you?"
It would have been the perfect excuse. She could have used that and given herself every reason to leave SPR. And no one would blame her. No one would question her. But it wouldn't have been true. She knew he was possessed and would never have done that to her in any other circumstance.
But Mai shook her head. She had had enough of lying to her friends. It seemed to be all that she could do over the last few months. "I wish I could use that as an excuse, but I can't." She hunched herself over her cup, her tea was almost gone. "I haven't been in a good place for a while now. And I've been trying to figure out how to find my way back. I knew that part of the reason was all of the darkness we face on cases, but I was starting to get a little better after a while."
"So, what made you decide to look for a new job?"
She bit her lip and gripped her cup. C'mon, Mai, you need to stop shutting everyone out. You don't have to tell him everything, but he's obviously worried, she told herself. It's okay to trust him.
"What you have to understand, Yasuhara, is," she took a breath, "I didn't realize how bad Shouta was until after what happened last month. I'm still only just realizing the damage he's done. He wasn't just physically abusive. I didn't see it until now." Yasuhara listened intently. "Aside from hitting me that one time he wasn't physical. It was my fault and I got lucky."
"Mai-"
"It was my fault, but that doesn't make it a bad thing," Mai said, stopping him. "I was actually planning on taking a break from him and was trying to figure out how to tell him when he showed up drunk. I said 'no' and he had a tantrum. But it wasn't until after our case and talking with Ayako and some other friends that I realized just how bad the relationship was. I was lucky that he hit me, had he not, I probably would have eventually given him what he wanted. I probably wouldn't have left him. It was the wakeup call I needed."
"You said he was trying to get you to leave SPR, why?" Yasuhara had finished his tea.
"For some reason, Shouta hated Naru with a passion." Mai furrowed her brow as she thought about it. "He wanted me to work at the same company as him so we could spend more time together. I didn't realize at first why he was trying to get me to work there, I thought it was just because he couldn't stand how I was being treated by Naru."
"Because he was there when you and Naru had that big fight," Yasuhara remembered. Mai nodded.
"Yeah, he would go on tirades about how I didn't deserve to be abused by him. How I was worth so much more than a gofer. How Naru didn't care about me. How I was just a lackey to him." She shrugged. "And I believed him. Because of so many rants that he would go on, I started to hate Naru. I used to consider SPR my family, but Shouta shattered that fantasy too. He convinced me that he was the closest thing to family I had. We knew practically everything about each other. Meanwhile, I didn't even know Monk had a sister."
"And this had been going on the whole relationship?"
Again, Mai nodded. "Well, since Christmas. He would go on and on about how Naru took advantage of me and I believed him. And remember how your number got deleted from my phone a little while ago?"
"Yeah, he went through your phone too?"
"Not physically. He gave it to me for Christmas and before I sent it back to him I had it looked at. Turns out because he bought the phone he had it linked with his phone. So when I would add a contact, it would appear in his phone too. And when he deleted one-"
"It was deleted from your phone too."
"That's right," she said, letting go of her empty mug and folding her arms, resting them on the table. "He also had access to my text messages from his phone. I had access to his, too, but I didn't find out until I had the phone looked at. He also would track my phone, at least, I'm pretty sure he did."
"I'm sorry, Mai." She looked up to see sympathetic eyes. "I'm so sorry."
But Mai smiled. "I'm okay, really." She leaned back in her seat and let out a breath. "I've been talking with a good friend and I'm realizing just how much control I've let Shouta have over me. How much control he still has. And I'm not leaving SPR, you guys helped me when I was at my worst. It's the closest thing to a family I've had in a very long time. I don't plan on losing that, I almost lost it once, I'm not losing it again."
Yasuhara smiled. "I'm glad, Mai," he said, standing up. He washed his cup out in her sink and grabbed his coat. Mai stood up to show him out. He hugged her just before they were at the door. "If you ever need anything or anyone to talk to, let me know."
"Thanks, Yasuhara."
"You really thought a talk with that boy could undo everything that's been done to you?" The demonic voice roared in laughter. Mai couldn't see him. She wasn't in the cave this time, at least, she didn't think she was. The scene was blacker than night. She couldn't see her own hand. "When will you learn that you're mine? You're my little shattered dancer. That's all you'll ever be."
"I'm not looking to undo what's been done," she said with a breath. She felt like she was floating, but not carefree. Like she was about to fall any moment and nothing could save her. "I've gotten rid of part of the problem."
"You think he was the issue?" The voice laughed again and Mai swore she felt its hot breath on the back of her neck. "Oh, sweetheart, he was only trying to get you to see the truth. He wasn't a good man, sure, but was he really wrong?"
"Yes." She was not going to continue this discussion. She refused. She needed to talk to John and ask for his help as soon as she could.
"Even if he could get rid of me, you will never go back to what you were before." She felt hands on her shoulders, caressing them and her neck. Almost like a lover. "You know the real problem. The real reason why you have me. The real reason why you're so fucked up. You've known it for a while. That boy was wrong in what he did, but he was so right."
"Get off of me!" Mai growled. If only she could wake up on command. She wasn't that lucky. She felt the hands travel down to her breasts. Their touch was gentle at first, but soon became rough squeezes and pulls. She could almost feel the bruises forming already. "I said get off!"
She squirmed as best as she could, but the hands were still there. There was no escape as she felt whatever clothing she had been wearing was removed. Her mind flashed back to her last case. Was this just a nightmare of her past? But the creature laughed maniacally as Mai was finally able to see the culprit.
"But it's not me, sweetheart!"
Mai couldn't describe the feeling she felt as her vision became clear. Betrayal and hurt was a good start, but it still wasn't enough. How could anyone describe seeing your boss attempt to rape you for a second time?
March Day 2, 1:02 A.M
Mai sprang to a sitting position in her bed. Cold sweat fell in beads down her face and neck. The ghost of those hands still groped her. Her tears fell. Her hands shook as she brought them to her face. Bile rose in the back of her throat and she forced herself to run to her bathroom.
With virtually no strength left in her legs, Mai kneeled in front of her toilet and emptied her stomach of its contents. Her tears continued to fall, mixing with the disgusting mess in front of her. Once she was done, she flushed the mess down the drain and wiped her mouth. She sat back against the wall and curled her legs to her chest. She wrapped her arms around them and sobbed.
There's just no way! She reminded herself. He's gotta be wrong!
Her attempts to hold back her cries were wasted as she rocked herself against the wall. She didn't have to look at the clock to know she had only been asleep for thirty minutes.
March Day 2, 3:09 P.M.
Mai had been jumpy all day. She looked at herself in the mirror after her run and realized she probably looked deader than the spirits she helped cross over. So after her shower she put on makeup and made sure her hair was almost perfect before she left the apartment. She didn't go back to sleep after that dream, she couldn't even study to take her mind off of it. She had turned on every light in her apartment and spent the early morning hours pacing. Luckily none of her neighbors seemed to have been bothered.
She barely managed to pay attention in class that day. She was just trying to stay awake. Every time she closed her eyes longer than for a blink, all she could see was Naru assaulting her. It wasn't like she didn't know that what happened on their last case was not him or his fault. No, she knew and was adamant about it on the case. That damn demon was trying to play games with her and she was letting him.
Beep! Beep!
The car horn made her jump as she turned to see Yasuhara had arrived to pick her up. She frowned as she saw his shoulders shake with chuckles at her reaction. With a scowl she got into the passenger seat. "Sorry, Mai, didn't mean to scare you," he laughed as Mai buckled herself up.
Mai waved off what happened and stared out the window for most of the drive to the office building. She wasn't sure what was worse, the fact she couldn't sleep or the fact that she couldn't concentrate while she was awake.
Luckily the ride was short to the office and once they had arrived Naru immediately put them to work. "We didn't capture anything on the equipment," Naru informed them once they arrived. "And there have been no pranks today. It's looking like whoever is the culprit has decided to lay low."
"I guess we really are dealing with a hoax," Mai remarked bitterly. The door to Base opened and the intern from the day before, who experienced the blood in the sink, walked in with a tray of tea.
"Here you are, Shibuya-san," she said with a smile. "Was there anything else I could get for you?" She placed the tray with six cups on the table.
Naru didn't respond, so John smiled and took the first cup from the tray. "Thank you, Toyama-san," he said as the girl bowed. "If we need anything else, we'll let you know." Wish a blush, the girl bowed again and left.
So that's Sayaka, Mai noted to herself. Masako was right, she really is the target for activity.
"Mai." Her head perked up at the sound of her name. "You and Yasuhara will conduct temperature readings. Hara-san, I want you and Father Brown to walk around and cleanse any area you feel a disturbance in." Naru was met with slightly confused looks. "The appearance of us attempting to cleanse the spirit will ease the concerns of the employees. At least the ones who believe it's a spirit causing the activity."
Naru and Lin stayed in Base while everyone else went off to their tasks. Mai was waiting for the thermometer to settle in one of the conference rooms as she tried and failed to suppress a shiver that went down her spine. "Cold?" the college student asked.
But the thermometer showed the room as being just over twenty-one degrees Celsius. It wasn't cold, so why was she? "No." She shook her head. "I mean, a little," she admitted with a shrug. "I didn't sleep well, I think that's it."
"Nightmares?"
Mai shrugged. "I guess you could say that," she said, jotting down the temperature and picking up the thermometer. "It's nothing."
"I meant what I said, Mai," he said as he followed her out. "If you need to talk, I'll listen."
And Mai realized it. She never told anyone about her nightmares. No one was sure of when they started. He thinks my nightmares are because of Shouta. "I know," she said with a breath. "Thank you." He's not completely wrong, but he's not right, either.
The college student sighed, realizing he wasn't going to get her to talk at the moment. "Okay, well, we still have a couple of offices left on this floor, then we can head back to Base and ask Naru-"
"Yasuhara-san!" a voice called, Mai and her friend turned to see a young man walking out of one of the conference rooms. A meeting had just ended. The man walked over to them. "What has it been? Two, three years?"
"More like, two, Renjiro-san," Yasuhara replied, and the two shook hands like they were old buddies. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."
"Yeah, my father's company, where I work after spending a year in America, tends to partner up with this company. I tried to tell them how idiotic they were for believing some ghost is haunting them! It's ridiculous, right?" he continued, Mai just stayed back and watched, something in her stomach churned. "But, anyway, it brought two old high school buddies together didn't it!"
"You seem to remember high school much differently than I do," he returned, crossing his arms.
"Speaking of high school, I could have sworn I saw you the other day, with none other than Kimura Kiko!" Renjiro commented with a smile. "When were you going to tell me you were dating my old girlfriend!" he laughed.
Mai wanted to puke. This was Kiko's old boyfriend? But then his laugh triggered something in her mind. She thought back to her vision a few cases ago. It had nothing to do with their last case. It had everything to do with what happened to her friend. That was when Mai truly realized that her visions weren't just visions. They were someone's reality.
"I wouldn't necessarily say we're dating-" Yasuhara tried to retort.
"So, you haven't dated long? Don't worry, she's the best, if you get what I mean," he gave a sly smirk. "I can't believe I let her go, but who's your friend behind you?"
"This is Mai, she's Shibuya-san's assistant," Yasuhara introduced. "This is Renjiro, he went to Ryoukuryou with me."
"Hello…" she said slowly, she watched his face change at the thought that she was working for SPR.
"Another believer in ghosts, huh? Well, I'm sure you'll grow out of it with time," he shrugged and reached into his pocket. "And when you do grow out of it, give me a call." He handed Mai a business card. "I've gotta run, but I'll see you guys later!"
"Bye," Yasuhara and Mai replied, she looked up at her friend to see his jaw tense. He reached over and took the business card from her hand.
"That bastard," he swore under his breath. He ripped the business card in several pieces and let them fall to the floor. Mai had never seen him like this, he was normally carefree and pretty relaxed, now he was no less than pissed.
"He's the reason, isn't he?" she asked, but he just kept his head down. "The reason Kiko left Ryoukuryou?"
Finally, he just sighed. "Yes."
"So you know what he did to her?" she asked, knowing full well that he knew almost everything.
"I've suspected, but he just admitted to it," he replied, but turned to her. "She told you?"
Mai nodded, "Yeah, but I sort of knew before." She crossed her arms. "A couple cases ago I had a vision. Not like my usual dreams-"
"Speaking of, you haven't had one of those dreams in a while," he interrupted.
"It's a long story, but anyway, I thought it might have had something to do with that case, but it didn't. Then I thought maybe the next case. Then I thought maybe the case at the college, but it was at that case I knew it had nothing to do with a case, but everything to do with a friend's past." She unknowingly gripped her arms as she spoke. "He said horrible things to her and threw her away once he was done using her. She was terrified and felt so empty. I think I understand why she decided not to come on this case."
"You can stop, Mai," he said, placing his hand on her shoulder. "I don't need to hear this."
"But I feel that you do," she said looking up at him. "I know it's her business and I shouldn't even know, but something is telling me that I had to tell you. Like you do need to know. I can't say why or explain it, but-"
But Yasuhara placed a hand on her head and gave her a hug to silence her. "Thank you, Mai."
She wrapped her arms around the man and bit her lip. Too many of her own tears had been shed recently. She didn't need to shed more.
"Let's finish the temperature sweep."
"Okay," she nodded numbly.
I had the last scene in mind pretty much when I figured out Kiko's past. And since I don't plan on Shouta and Mai having another confrontation (at least not for now. Perhaps in the future, you never know.) I figured this was the best way for Mai to see how an abusive relationship doesn't just affect the victim but those close to the victim.
Several of you asked me why Mai is only letting John in on what's going on with her. To be perfectly honest, I don't even know. It's just what feels right with her current character development. but I sort of have her opening up to different characters in different ways, such as letting Yasuhara in on her possibly leaving SPR. Awake was let in on her abusive relationship with Shouta, and Ayako was the one who told everyone, not Mai. She will let John in on her demon and insomnia, and she'll let others in on other things in her life. Mai's lost trust. Trust in herself. And trust in her friends. She's starting to give that trust back. And we'll start to see that in the next couple of chapters and the next case!
Hope you enjoyed! Please review!